The Slutty Pumpkin Returns
Recap Future Ted reminds his kids about how ten years earlier he met the Slutty Pumpkin, a girl in a provocative pumpkin costume who appeared to be very compatible with Ted, during the rooftop Halloween party. However, he lost the Kit Kat bar that she had written her number on and waited each year in vain for her to appear again. In the present, Ted sees the slutty pumpkin costume in the window of a shop, where the owner willingly divulges the identity the woman who rented it in 2001. Ted meets Naomi, the girl who wore the costume and has also been searching for Ted; they begin dating. Ted immediately realizes he doesn't love her at all, but can't bring himself to end the relationship so easily after finally finding the slutty pumpkin girl. When Ted decides that he needs to break up with Naomi, he's stunned to see she's wearing the slutty pumpkin costumes and says that he loves her. They arrive at the Halloween party on the roof wearing the costumes they wore when they first met. When Naomi makes the Tootsie Roll drink, she confesses that she found their relationship as awkward as Ted did, but also didn't want to end it after waiting so long to meet him and tried to force him to break up with her by acting strangely. They break up amicably. Meanwhile, Lily's judgment is impaired by the fact that she has "pregnancy brain," and impulsively decides she wants to live in the suburbs now that she and Marshall have inherited her grandparents' house. Though Marshall wants to live in the suburbs, he does not want to take advantage of Lily's state of mind. When they arrange for a real estate broker to assess the house, Lily tries to trick Marshall into giving in when visiting trick-or-treaters arrive at the house. However, when Lily realizes how her pregnancy brain has affected her ability to make decisions, she decides she doesn't want to live in the suburbs and agrees to wait until she can think clearly before she and Marshall decide whether they want to move away from the city. In the meantime, Robin learns from Barney's father Jerome Whittaker through Facebook that Barney's paternal grandmother was born in Manitoba, thus making Barney one quarter Canadian. Barney is horrified and Robin goes out of her way to emphasize Barney's Canadian heritage to compensate for all the mockery she has endured from Barney over the years. She agrees to stop if Barney wears a Mountie costume for the Halloween party on the roof, but Barney resists and winds up wearing an complete with flag backdrop and James Brown's "Living in America" as background music. When he returns home later, his Canadian side manifests and Barney futilely tries to beat him down. Continuity *Naomi, better known as "The Slutty Pumpkin", makes her first appearance, after being mentioned heavily in . *Barney wears The Ducky Tie on his arm, but doesn't seem to be wearing it when he's in Mountie costume. *The Barney's "USA!" cheer at the Halloween party is the same one he does in Duel Citizenship. *The montage of flashbacks of Barney making fun of Canada includes scenes from Last Cigarette Ever and Duel Citizenship. *Lily's grandparents originally wanted to move to Florida in the season 5 episode Slapsgiving 2: Revenge of the Slap, but did not because of her father's unemployment. *Ted once again tells a girl he loves her at an inappropriate time. *While trying to convince Marshall to move to the suburbs, Lily tells him that they would have plenty of room. This references how Marshall feels as though New York is "designed for people who are smaller than him" as mentioned in I Heart NJ. *Barney uses the phrase "Classic Schmosby!", first used by Punchy in The Best Man. Gallery For a listing of all images on the wiki tagged as being from this episode, see Category:The Slutty Pumpkin Returns images. Perfect on Paper8.jpg Perfect on Paper7.jpg Perfect on Paper6.jpg Perfect on Paper5.jpg Perfect on Paper4.jpg Perfect on Paper3.jpg Perfect on Paper2.jpg TheSluttyPumpkinReturns.jpg snapshot20111104205339.jpg snapshot20111104205356.jpg snapshot20111104205614.jpg snapshot20111104205709.jpg snapshot20111104205740.jpg Himym 7x08 02.jpg Memorable Quotes Notes and Trivia Goofs and Errors *At the Halloween party on the roof top, Robin has blacked out two bottom, middle teeth. But later its on her top middle, then later back to the bottom. Allusions and Outside References *Barney makes a grand entrance at the costume party as Apollo Creed from Rocky IV, complete with flag backdrop and James Brown's "Living in America" as background music. *Naomi mentions that she came across lots of Big Lebowskis, Harry Potters and Antoine Dodsons through the last Halloweens. *When Barney discovers he is 1/4th Canadian, his line "No, it's not true, that's impossible!" is the same line uttered by Luke Skywalker when he is told that he is Darth Vader's son. *The famous Canadians Robin makes reference to are Justin Bieber, Yukon Blonde, and John Diefenbaker. Barney uses the expression, "heavens to Gretzky." *When Robin tells Barney that the Canadian one dollar coin is called a Loonie and the two dollar coin is called a Toonie, he says that it sounds like a Hanna-Barbera character. *Barney is split into two entities with a similar effect as Superman in Superman III Music *One Week - Barenaked Ladies, which Naomi tells Ted is "their song" because it had been playing when they first met. Barenaked Ladies are Canadian, which may be an intentional reference to the Barney/Robin subplot. *Living in America - James Brown Other Notes Guests *Katie Holmes - Naomi *Christina Pickles - Rita Aldrin *Jack Walsh - Morris Aldrin *Misty Monroe - Waitress *Marlowe Peyton - Kid *Dylan Shea - Trick or Treater *Anthony Van Epperson - Shop Owner Reception Donna Bowman of the AV Club graded the episode at B. Bowman gives guest star Katie Holmes praise for exceeding low expectations. Mohsin Akhtar of Metacritic graded the Episode B+, praising the 1/4 Canadian storyline. The episode attracted 10.49 million viewers. References External Links * * Category:Holiday episodes